As I read through these posts, my head is spinning. Some of what I’m reading is totally unknown, some I recognize. It’s akin to listening to someone speaking a foreign language you’re just beginning to learn, and you want SO BADLY to understand what they’re saying, but you just can’t catch all the words. You all sound like pros and old hats in the home school arena, while I sit here with a brain overwhelmed and PACKED with so much information, I feel like that mindblown emoji.
I am new to homeschooling this school year (2020-2021) with a now 3rd grade son and 8th grade daughter. I made the choice to homeschool in the summer after spending 3.5 months at home with my children “distance learning” (DL). Everyone the world over was affected by a global shutdown in the wake of what is called the “COVID-19 Pandemic.” In March 2020, parents, children, teachers, and school administrators scrambled to put pupils on a track that would keep them in learning mode. One of the most valuable lessons I learned in the slightly more than quarter of a year I stayed home alongside my children, was how much better they both did in an environment where they had the undivided attention of their mother.
Not surprisingly, DL was NOT always pretty…my frustration sometimes felt insurmountable regarding 1) the lack of organization of certain teachers, 2) the relative hands-off methods of the school (my children attended a private school and there were very few Zoom classes where actual teaching was performed; most Zooms were “meet-ups” where the teacher & pupils kibbitzed and occasionally discussed assignments or read together, which meant most work that was assigned to my children was up to me and them to figure put on our own), and 3) the learning curve for ALL parties associated with the technologies in use (Google Classroom, Zoom, scanning, emailing, etc.). In fairness, it was new to all of us, and we all stumbled along as best we could, parents, children, teachers, and admins.
At home it became a priority that we make the most of it. And so we did. My 7th grader’s end of trimester grades were a testimony to the hard work and focus we put into her schooling; she was failing 4 core classes at the beginning of our distance learning journey. By the end of the school year, she improved her Algebra grade from a 19% to 82%, and in all the other classes she had been failing (in the 50% range), she received grades in the 90% range. It was a revelation for me of epic proportions. I, too, had to learn as we went.
Algebra was my daughter’s most stressful class, the concepts and problems just not making sense to her. I didn’t recognize this until 3 weeks into DL. After I Zoomed with her teacher, I realized his particular style or manner was not going to help her very much, and I certainly didn’t expect him to change. It was clear, though, he did want her to improve, and he was quite lenient with late work and make-up work as we slogged through Algebra. I committed myself to waking up early, reading through her Algebra book for each each assignment, and then doing the assignments on my own. Some of those assignments took hours, with YouTube videos, Kahn Academy, the textbook website, and whatever other online resource I could dig up to help me. Thus when my daughter would start the assignment on her own, I could answer her questions, and help her work through the problems. It was immensely labor intensive for me, but I could think of no other way to help her. That experience also helped cement my decision to homeschool…if I was going to be THAT involved, I should be involved in subjects I chose, at a pace I chose, on a timeline I chose.
I understood by mid-summer my children’s school would not be returning “to normal.” Even if children would be allowed back into the classroom, it was clear it would be under the state & county mandated social distancing guidelines, and my heart was troubled at the thought of my children wearing a masks all day, 6 feet apart from every other human being in the vicinity. Thus, I made the very difficult decision to stay home (I am a single mother who owns a local business) to educate my children. I am in the fortunate position of having 2 wonderful and loyal employees who have kept my business going since March. Nonetheless, business ownership is a 24/7 proposition, and the choice to mostly stay home rather than work in my office was a HUGE decision.
That very lengthy history is the backdrop upon which I find myself on SCM. I have ordered scads of SCM curriculum. I’ve read through these forums. I’ve Googled and rabbit-trailed my way through homeschooling info all over the interwebs. And am piecing together a school year and plan I hope will shape my children and me into a cohesive homeschooling trio that will find excitement and joy in this journey, rather than the sense of overwhelm and the all-too-frequent “I am so messing up every single thing I do” moments.
Thank you for your insights. I do so appreciate reading your posts in the hope that one day I may sound as professional as you all do!
